Keep Green Days Green
From Chiswickw4.com May 21, 2006
Bedford Park Festival backs
'Love London' campaign
Chiswick's biggest community event, The Bedford Park Festival, will play a leading part in the new 'Love London' campaign in June, helping promote recycling and sustainable development in the capital. As part of its pioneering 'Keep Green Days Green' campaign, it aims to recycle all waste from the Green Days fete on June 10th and 11th. It will also give hundreds of people the chance to win a 'green' car, the Honda Civic Hybrid, and learn about low-emission vehicles.
The Festival has earned praised from Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Mayor of London for its achievement in recycling 100 per cent of the waste at last year's event. With the support of Ealing and Hounslow boroughs, Grundon Waste Management, West London Composting and pupils from Latymer Upper School, it encouraged thousands of people to separate their waste and put it in clearly marked bins.
Rima Jones, recycling co-ordinator for the Festival, said "A total of 1040 kilos were recycled, including food, napkins, card plates and cups, and all the recycling companies reported that there were no contaminants."
The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said "It is vitally important that we recycle as much of our rubbish as possible and it is great that the Bedford Park Festival is encouraging people to recycle when they are out at events as well as in their homes and offices."
Georgina Bloomfield of Friends of the Earth said "This festival provides a wonderful example of how waste should be managed at big events. It's great that all the materials will be turned into useful products rather than adding to the mountains of rubbish filling up landfill sites and being incinerated. We need to see more of this type of commitment to recycling to reduce the impact of our consumption and waste production."
Jo Sayers of Greenpeace said "I believe this is the first time we have been informed of a community festival achieving zero waste - so well done to everybody. Greenpeace firmly believes that a Zero Waste policy is vitally important both in the UK and worldwide and efforts like yours provide a great example to everyone."
This year, as part of the Love London campaign for London Sustainability Weeks, the Festival will be stepping up its sustainability efforts. Teams from the 3rd Chiswick Scouts and St Paul's Christian Union will be joining pupils from Latymer Upper School to help make sure waste is put in the right bins on Green Days weekend. Chiswick Recycling Action Group will take a stall to promote recycling and take orders for composters and recycling boxes.
Chiswick Honda is sponsoring a Win-a-Car contest in which people will compete for a chance to win a new Honda Civic Hybrid, winner of the 2006 Green Car of the Year Award. The plant stall will be sponsored by the west London hire car firm greentomatocars, which uses a fleet of 'green' Toyota Prius cars. There's also support from two Chiswick-based environmental companies - Kotuku, which promotes sustainability in the construction industry, and the Green Trading Company, which will have a stall.
The green theme continues with the annual Children's Fancy Dress Parade, which opens the Festival on Saturday June 10th, and the children's Treasure Hunt in Turnham Green Terrace in Chiswick. The theme is "endangered species".
This year's Green Days weekend, held opposite Turnham Green tube station, will take place on June 10th and 11th, at the start of the two-week Bedford Park Festival. It is organised by St Michael & All Angels church in aid of charities. This year money will be raised for the cot death charity, the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths; the Upper Room, which feeds the needy in west London, and the repainting of the church interior.
May 21, 2006